JUDGE ORDERS PUMP STATION GATES UNBLOCKED

HAL MARCOVITZ, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

An injunction prohibiting protesters from blocking the entrance to the Point Pleasant pumping station was issued yesterday by Bucks County President Judge Isaac S. Garb, who declared that the environmental group Del-AWARE Unlimited has illegally taken over the water project property.

Garb's ruling came after a daylong hearing in which lawyers for Lisbon Contractors Inc. sought to prove the company has been barred access since Tuesday to the construction site on River Road.

Garb said at the close of the hearing that he was satisfied Del-AWARE's conduct "has resulted in an unconstitutional taking of that property."

Bucks County Sheriff Lawrence Michaels said he would deliver the injunction to Point Pleasant this morning at 6:45. He said he wouldread it to the protesters at the site and then direct his deputies to enforce the restraining order.

"We'll appear at the scene, post it and then enforce it," said the sheriff.

He said state police will be called in for assistance.

Four years ago, when a similar injunction was issued at the site, more than 170 demonstrators were arrested over a three-day period.

Since Tuesday, demonstrators have barred access to the site to Lisbon, the Danboro construction company retained to complete the pumping station. As many as 200 protesters a day have appeared at the site.

George Frey, superintendent of the project for Lisbon, testified during hearings that he was continually barred from entering the site by the protesters, who locked arms and stood in his way as he approached the gate.

In addition, Frey testified the protesters have piled logs and rocks in front of the entrance, lugging them to the gates from a wooded area across River Road.

"The first thing they took across was a bunch of logs. After they got three or four logs across, they started rolling rocks across the road. They got a pretty good pile there right now," he said.

J. Scott Maxwell, attorney for Lisbon, contended that Del-AWARE orchestrated the protest. He submitted photographs of the scene as well as a videotape, arguing to Garb that members and officers of the organization were directing the activities at the site.

But Walter Cohen, the former state consumer advocate, who represented Del- AWARE at the hearing, countered that the actual blockade of the gates was not organized by the group. Cohen said the videotape showed people locking arms at the entrance, but it did not establish that they were representatives of Del-AWARE.

"I did not see clearly a barricade of people who I could identify as officers of Del-AWARE," Cohen told the court.

Construction is resuming on the project because of a series of court orders issued against the Democratic administration in the Bucks County Courthouse, which in 1984 ordered work halted on the water supply system.

Work originally started in January 1983. The first few days of construction in that year were delayed by the activities of protesters, who contend the project would have an adverse environmental impact on the Delaware River.

The pumping station is designed to draw up to 95 million gallons of water a day from the Delaware for domestic use in Bucks and Montgomery counties. It is also intended to supply supplemental cooling water to Philadelphia Electric Co.'s nuclear power plant near Limerick, Montgomery County.

Attorney Gregory Smith, who also represented Del-AWARE during the hearing, started the session off by asking Garb to step down from the case. Smith suggested that the judge has a conflict of interest because he was in private practice during the 1960s in the law firm of Doylestown attorney Robert W. Valimont. Valimont is an attorney for PE.

In addition, Smith contended that Garb has indicated publicly that his retention in the November election may be influenced by his decisions on the Point Pleasant project.

Garb responded that while he once worked in Valimont's firm, he has not let that fact influence his rulings on Point Pleasant. As for his retention election in November, Garb said he has a duty to rule fairly on the issues regardless of what impact it would have on his own future. He refused to remove himself from the case.

"There is nothing about this controversy that in any way would affect my judgment," said Garb.

Three members of Del-AWARE were called as witnesses during the hearing by Jeremiah J. Cardamone, lawyer for the North Penn and North Wales water authorities. North Penn and North Wales have signed on to be major customers of the project.

Two of the witnesses, Ralph Myers of Doylestown Township and Mercedes Gallagher of Tinicum Township, refused to identify Del-AWARE members whose pictures at the site were offered as evidence.

Gallagher, who is executive director of the organization, said it would be against her Fifth Amendment rights to testify against other Del-AWARE members.

"On advice of counsel, I will take the Fifth Amendment. I do not want to incriminate anybody," she said.

Myers also invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and challenged Garb to jail him if the judge wanted to force him to testify.

"Mr. Myers, I don't want to throw you in jail," replied Garb.

The other witness from Del-AWARE was Myers' son, Richard, who is chairman of the board of Del-AWARE. Richard Myers testified he was not at the site when the photographs were taken.

Maxwell said the company is prepared to proceed immediately with construction. Its first task, he said, is to move its office trailers onto the site, string electrical lines and perform other "mobilization" activities.

The attorney said the injunction does not prohibit the anti-project activists from protesting. He said their activities will be restricted to public roads and other areas that will not deny the company access to the property.

"They will be allowed to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody's taking that right away," said Maxwell.

Richard Myers said he fully expected Garb to issue the injunction. He said that while Del-AWARE, as an organization, intends to live by the terms of the court order, its members will continue to oppose the project in other forms.

"Our fight against the pump will intensify," he said.

Gallagher said each protester at the project site will have to decide on his own whether he intends to step aside when the Lisbon crews and the sheriff arrive today. "We expect a lot of people in Point Pleasant," she said.